Description
Festive Christmas Pinwheel Cookies featuring layers of colorful red, green, and white dough rolled into a beautiful swirl, coated with holiday sprinkles, and baked to a light golden perfection. Perfect for holiday gatherings or as a cheerful gift.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 3 cups (360 g) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Coloring and Decoration
- ½ teaspoon red food coloring
- ½ teaspoon green food coloring
- ½ cup Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Combine dry ingredients: In a mixing bowl, combine the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside for later.
- Cream butter and sugars: In a separate mixing bowl, cream the softened unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla: Add the large egg and pure vanilla extract to the creamed butter mixture and mix well until fully incorporated.
- Incorporate dry ingredients: Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until no streaks of flour remain and the dough is uniform.
- Divide and color dough: Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Add red food coloring to one portion, green food coloring to another, and leave the third portion white. Mix each portion until the color is evenly distributed.
- Roll dough into rectangles: On a lightly floured surface, roll each color of dough into roughly a 12×8 inch (30×20 cm) rectangle.
- Layer dough: Layer the rectangles with the green dough first, then the white, and finally the red on top to form a layered stack.
- Roll into log: Starting at the long end, tightly roll the layered dough into a log. As you roll, the log may lengthen slightly.
- Coat and chill: Roll the dough log in holiday sprinkles until coated, then wrap it tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours to chill and firm up.
- Preheat oven and prepare baking sheets: Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) or 160°C if using a fan oven. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Slice and bake: Slice the chilled dough log into ¼ inch thick slices. Place each slice cut side down on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes or until slightly puffed and lightly golden.
- Cool cookies: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Rotate the baking sheets halfway through baking to ensure even cooking.
- This recipe yields approximately 36 cookies, depending on how tightly you roll and slice the dough.
- Keep the dough chilled before slicing to maintain firm, defined colors in the pinwheels.
- Use the trimmed dough from shaping to create additional pretty swirled cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 10 g
- Sodium: 80 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 20 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 30 mg
